The preceding Extracts on the identity of the offices of Bishop and Elder, have been made in consequence of the importance which this question is beginning to assume, from the high authority which is again being claimed for the episcopal office; and in order also that the language of scripture may be placed in contrast with the passages from the apostolic fathers which will now be given. The scriptural evidence upon the subject is perfectly simple and uncomplicated, and clearly proves that the assumption of a third order above that of Elders, was made subsequently to the original order settled by the Apostles. They themselves were of an order peculiar and incommunicable. Their gifts were peculiar; (1 Cor. 12:28.) their “signs” were peculiar: (2 Cor. 12:28.) and they derived their authority only by the direct appointment of the Lord Himself, or the express revelation of the Spirit, as in the case of Barnabas; and it appears also to have been needful that they should have seen the Lord, in order to be witnesses to His resurrection. (see Acts 1 and 1 Cor. 9:1) But since it is extensively affirmed that they transmitted their own peculiar office to others, that an individual as their representative was appointed to take the supreme charge of ecclesiastical affairs in each Church, and that Timothy and Titus were thus appointed to Ephesus and Crete, the reader is referred to the Note, (Page 910) where it is shown that they were simply fellow helpers of the Apostle Paul in the several p arts through which he traveled without any special designation to a particular and limited district. This will more plainly appear from the following passages.—
(Acts 19:22.) “So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus.”
(1 Cor. 4:17.) “I have sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, &c., who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach every where and in every Church.”
(1 Cor. 16:10.) “Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord as also I do.”
(2 Cor. 1:19.) “The Son of God, Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us, even by me, and Sylvanus, and Timotheus.”
(Phil. 2:19.) “But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you.”
(1 Thess. 3:2.) “We sent Timotheus our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you.”
(2 Tim. 4:5.) “Do the work of an EVANGELIST. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.” (at Rome)
(Heb. 13:23) “Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.”
(2 Cor. 2:12.) “When I came to Troas,” “I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother.”
(2 Cor. 7:6) “God comforted us by the coming of Titus.” (2 Cor. 8:6.) “We desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.”
(2 Cor. 8:16.) “Thanks be to God who hath put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.”
(Gal. 2:1.) “I went up again to Jerusalem and took Titus with me.” (2 Tim. 4:10.) “Titus is departed for Dalmatia.”
Thus, then, neither Timothy nor Titus received any particular charge, but were commissioned as need required, to the different Churches, without being permanently stationary in any place. The argument therefore which is brought forward to support the pretensions of modern episcopacy, by asserting Timothy and Titus to be the precursors of diocesan Bishops, is not supported by scripture. And as it has been before shown that in all the different passages of scripture, where Bishops or Elders are spoken of, the titles are indiscriminately used, (a fact allowed by many even of the supporters of episcopal claims) the distinction, if persisted in, must be grounded upon other evidence than that of the New Testament. Accordingly we find in the present day, much use beginning again to be made of the authority of the apostolical Fathers; an authority which would have less weight with many, if their writings were more generally known. They are triumphantly quoted by the defenders of the present state of things, in the Christian Church; and those who have not inquired beyond the passages which they may incidentally have seen, are not unfrequently disposed to attach more than usual importance to the testimony of the immediate successors of the apostles, who are supposed to have drank immediately from the streams of the instruction of God’s Spirit through them. But how is the reader surprised, not only at the grievous lack of spiritual power, but the puerilities, and in some cases, inconceivable absurdities which are to be met with in these writings. It seems as if God had stamped at once the difference between his own Word, and the productions of weak and erring man, by showing us immediately the deficiency of that which His own Spirit did not dictate, even in the works of those who lived immediately after, or even within the times of the Apostles. Far less of edification indeed is to be derived from them, than from many of the Fathers of much later date. It has been truly said “Primitive Christianity discovers its character only in the scriptures of the New Testament, for no sooner do we sink into the writings of what are called the apostolical fathers, than we begin to feel the poverty of uninspired theology, and the early efforts of the secondary Church to gain an undue and worldly authority.” It is remarkable indeed to observe from the following passages, how soon, in default of the real moral power possessed by the Apostles, the tone of assumption and claim of prescribed reverence arose in the Church. The passages are given, because it is on these that the maintainers of episcopal succession lay the principal stress of their arguments, whenever doubts are raised respecting the validity of their assertions that the distinction between Bishop and Elder is actually to be found in scripture, and that Timothy and Titus were such Bishops. The comparison of the extracts with the scriptures, may be safely left to all, who look upon the word of God alone, to be in itself the ultimate and sufficient standard of decision.
Ignatius to the Ephesians. 4.— “For even Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is sent by the will of the Father, as the Bishops appointed to the utmost bounds of the earth, are by the will of Jesus Christ. Wherefore it will become you to run together according to the will of your Bishop, as also ye do. For your famous Presbytery (worthy of God) is fitted as exactly to the Bishop as the strings are to the harp.”
VI. “It is therefore evident that we ought to look upon the Bishop even as we would do upon the Lord Himself.”
To the Magnes. VI— “Your Bishop presiding in the place of God; your Presbyters in the place of the council of the Apostles; and your Deacons being intrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ. &c.”
VII. “As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, &c. so neither do ye anything without your Bishop and Presbyters.”
XIII..— “Be subject to your Bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father according to the flesh; and the Apostles, both to Christ and to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost”
To the Trall.— “Let all reverence the Deacons as Jesus Christ; and the Bishop as the Father; and the Presbyters as the Sanhedrim of God and College of the Apostles —Without these there is no Church.”
To the Rom.— “Ye may give thanks to the Father through Jesus Christ, that He has vouchsafed to bring a Bishop of Syria, (Ignatius) unto you, being called from the East unto the West.”
To the Philad.— “I cried whilst I was among you, I spake with a lone voice; —Attend to the Bishop, and to the Presbytery, and to the Deacons. He is my witness, for whose sake I am in bonds, that I know nothing from any man; but the Spirit spake, saying on this wise, do nothing without the Bishop.”
To the Smyrn.— “ See that ye all follow your Bishop, as Jesus Christ the Father, and the Presbyters as the Apostles; and reverence the Deacons as the command of God. Let that Eucharist be looked upon as well established which is either offered by the Bishop, or by him to whom the Bishop has given his consent. It is not lawful without the Bishop, neither to baptize, nor to celebrate the Holy Communion.”
Such is the character of the testimony, on which (in opposition it may be affirmed to all the witness of scripture itself) is grounded the main support which the question is considered to receive from the apostolical Fathers; for the appeal is principally made to the epistles of Ignatius; and it is remarkable that the tone of authority assumed in the passages above quoted, is not at all to be found in any of the other Fathers of the same date. Indeed it is remarkable that Clement, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, clearly supports the scriptural view that there were only two offices in the Church— “The Apostles appointed the first fruits of their conversions to be Bishops and Ministers over such as should afterward believe, having first proved them by the Spirit. Nor was this anything; seeing that long before, it was written concerning Bishops and Deacons. For thus saith the scripture, in a certain place, ‘I will appoint their Overseers in righteousness and their Ministers in faith.’ We need not stop here to notice Mosheim’s opinion of the writings of Ignatius—that he esteems “the authenticity of the epistle to Polycarp to be extremely dubious;” and declares “the question concerning all his epistles to labor under much obscurity, and to be embarrassed with many difficulties:” for, granting them all required credit, it needs only to place them by the side of the holy scriptures to be convinced of the entire difference of the state of things therein upheld, with that which ap. pears in the writings of the Apostles; and we are constrained to refer to the Bible alone as the sole arbitrator of this and every other question concerning Christ’s order for His Church. It is one of the sad proofs how soon the Spirit of the Apostles passed away from the Church after their decease, and at what an early period the way was prepared for receiving human authority in the place of the government of the Spirit, by which the seeds of the general declension, which so soon defaced the Church’s true and spiritual glory, were sown too effectually ever to be extirpated. Thus much is evident upon the face of the argument, that the government of the Churches, in the days of the Apostles themselves, was under the care of several Bishops in each; as in the case of the Church at Ephesus before mentioned; and that they were appointed Bishops by the Holy Ghost— This was therefore the Lord’s own ordering. But if a change was subsequently introduced, it was a change of a divine institution, not to be sanctioned even by the authority of the apostolical Fathers themselves.
The following citations from the Fathers, (quoted by Dwight) will show how conflicting and uncertain all the testimony posterior to that of scripture has ever been.
Jerome says that “A Presbyter is the same as a Bishop; and that originally the Churches were governed by the joint council of the Presbyters.” Again, “Let the Bishops know that they are greater than Presbyters, rather by custom than by the real appointment of the Lord.”
And again, “Among the ancients, Presbyters and Bishops were the same.”
Firmillian, Bishop of Caesarea, says “that in Elders is vested the power of baptizing, imposition of hands, and ordinations.”
Hilary says “the Presbyters were at first called Bishops.”
Theodoret says “Of old, they called the same men both Bishops and Presbyters.”
Not to omit any part of scripture whence proofs of episcopacy are supposed to be derived, the argument sometimes drawn from Rev. 2 and 3 may be noticed. But it would be difficult to prove that the angels therein addressed, mean an individual minister in each, superior to the rest. The addresses are applicable not to an individual, but to a collective body, as is manifest from their whole character; and it is observable, that in the first four of them, the singular pronoun thou is changed into the plural you, while the same person is addressed. Thus Christ says to the angel of the Church in Thyatira, “but unto you I say (υμιν δε λεγω) and unto the rest in Thyatira.” αγγελοι have been explained to denote either the ministering spirits employed in the invisible government of these Churches, or their visible governors as a whole who presided over them. But, however this may be, on a foundation so uncertain, nothing can be rested for the confirmation of a question like the present.
A few extracts are added from the epistles of the fathers, with the view of showing how little trust is to be placed in names of note or antiquity; although Archbishop Wake in his preliminary discourse concludes, “that they were not only not mistaken in what they deliver to us as the gospel of Christ, but in all the necessary parts of it were so assisted by the Holy Ghost, as hardly to have been capable of being mistaken in it.”
St. Clement. 1 Ep. to the Cor. 15. “Let us consider that wonderful type of the resurrection, which is seen in the eastern countries; that is to say in Arabia. There is a certain bird called the Phoenix; of this there is never but one at a time, and that lives five hundred years; and when the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it makes itself a nest of frankincense and myrrh, and other spices, into which when its time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But its flesh putrifying, it breeds a certain worm, which being nourished with the juice of the dead bird, brings forth feathers; and when it is grown to a. perfect state, it takes up the nest in which the bones of its parent He, and carries it from Arabia to Egypt, to a city called Heliopolis; and flying in open day, in sight of all men, lays it upon the altar of the Sun; and so returns from whence it came. The priests then search into the records of the time, and find that it returned precisely at the end of five hundred years.”
Ignatius to the Eph. 8 “My soul be for yours, and myself the expiatory offering for your Church of Ephesus, so famous throughout the world.” xviii. Jesus Christ was born and baptized, that through His passion He might purify water to the washing away of sin.
Catholic Epistle of Barnabas. 9. “Abraham who was the first that brought in circumcision, looking forward in the Spirit to Jesus, circumcised, having received the mystery of three letters. For the scripture says, that Abraham ‘circumcised three hundred and eighteen men of his house.’ but what, therefore, was the mystery that was made known unto him? Mark, first the eighteen, and next the three hundred. For the numeral letters of ten and eight are I. H. And these denote Jesus; and because the cross was that by which we were to find grace, therefore he adds three hundred, the note of which is T. [the figure of His cross.] Wherefore by two letters, he signified Jesus; and by the third His cross. He who put the engrafted gift of His doctrine within us, knows that I never taught to any one a more certain truth, but I trust ye are worthy of it.”
From the shepherd of Hermas, it is difficult to quote, on account of the incredible absurdities of which it is composed, and it is with much reluctance that the following passages are added.
Com. 6:2. “There are two angels with man, one of righteousness, the other of iniquity. And I said to him, “Sir, how shall I know that there are two such angels with man,” “Hear” says he “and understand; the angel of righteousness is mild and modest, and gentle, and quiet; when, therefore, he gets into the heart, know then that the angel of righteousness is with thee. Wherefore hearken to this angel and to his works, &c.”
Com. 11:2. “When therefore a man who hath the Spirit of God, shall come into the Church of the righteous, who hath the faith of God, and they pray unto the Lord, then the holy angel of God fills that man with the blessed Spirit, and he speaks in the congregation as he is moved of God.”
Simil. ix. 28. “As to the eleventh mountain, in which were trees loaded, with several sorts of fruit, they are such as have believed and suffered death, for the name of the Lord, and have endured with a ready mind, and have given up their lives with all their hearts.” And I said, “why then Sir, have all these fruit indeed, but yet some fairer than others?” “Hearken,” said he “whosoever have suffered for the name of the Lord, are esteemed honorable—by the Lord; and all their offenses are blotted out because they have suffered death for the name of the Son of God.”
It is needless to multiply quotations. We have shown that the testimony of the scripture is plain as to the existence of two and only two offices in the permanent arrangement of the Church but the fathers recognize another office and labor to invest it with the full authority of Christ. The value of their testimony may be estimated from the extracts that have been given, which do indeed prove their writings to have been emphatically the word of man.
But the time is come when we have to make our choice between the word of man, and the word of the living God. The Papal system has made its choice and is practically consistent therewith, How many will be retaken in its tempting snare, is known only to Him who seeth the end from the beginning. The two master principles of men’s minds, dominion and insubjection, are working in great energy, and they will bring to pass the strange exhibition of the latter day. All who are giving away to their lust for authoritative rule will cling to the seducing doctrines of apostolical authority, whilst those who lust for liberty in the flesh, will take the opposite of political dissent.
But the flock of Christ shall not perish, neither shall any duck them out of His hand. They will be taught the value of His plain and simple word, and they shall be kept from that hour of temptation which is coming to try all the dwellers upon earth. Blessed are they who keep us commandments.